We had a chair that the bottom strapping had worn out and broken through. In our town you just can not put a chair out next to your trash can and have it picked up. You have to take it to the transfer station and throw it into a inter-modal container which is then taken by truck to the railroad yard and put on the daily unit garbage train and taken to the landfill. The minimum fee for the transfer station is $20.00. Throwing this chair out was not worth $20.00 that was for sure.

Need is the mother of invention and we needed to find something to do with this old patio chair. Bob had the idea of turning it into a planter. We found a pot that would fit inside the chair frame. Bob had a some small cut off pieces of  2″x4″ treated lumber from building the fence. These where put on the ground and the pot set on top of them. Linda filled the pot with some gravel in the bottom for drainage and a mixture of potting soil and 1/3 compost, then planted the pot with some flowers We now had a new garden accent for the cost of a new pot! The cost of the pot was a lot less then the $20.00 fee at the transfer station.

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We had 5 evergreen trees growing on the property line between our house and the one next door. They had been planted by the builder when the houses where constructed about 12 years ago. They had grown to be 60 feet tall and where still growing. This type of tree grows to be 120 feet tall when fully grown. They where becoming a hazard in high winds and they where blocking much of the sun from Linda’s Serenity Garden. They had to be removed.

Once the trees where removed we now had great sun down the south side of the house for the first time since we lived here, but the yard was now open to the one next door which did not set the flower garden that is our back yard off very good. Linda wanted a fence built to draw the eye back to here Serenity Garden.

I first built a short 10 foot fence from the house wall to the walkway that would hide the propane tanks that where now in view since we had the shrubs removed along the side of the house when the trees where being removed.  Lining up the 6ft ceder fence boards here was easy. I put a 2″ X 4″ board on the ground, got it level and just put the fence fence boards on top of it. For the time being until I can build arbor I put a wrought iron arbor we purchased in the entry way.

Down the side of the property line where the trees had been removed we added garden composted soil to the ground which made the ground a bit higher. I wanted to keep the fence about 9″ above the ground so none of the soil would touch it and rot it’s boards. The ground also has a slope to the rear of the property so just laying a board on the ground was not an option.

Fence Jig

To line up my fence boards from the top I built a jig. I took a 2″ x 4″ board and screwed a 1″ X 8″ board on top of this. I was then able to sit this on top of the 2″X4″ treated board, put two nails in place to hold it and line up my fence boards from the top of the fence instead of the bottom. To give the fence some character I made a patten with the boards where I spaced the boards on both sides of the fence. The 1″ X8″ allowed me to work on both sides of the fence.

The fence was a two weekend project. The first weekend was a Sunday

Under construction with jig in place

afternoon putting the posts into the ground about 18″ deep and setting them with concrete. Since this is the Pacific Northwest and as soon as I got the fence posts in place and the concrete poured it just had to start to rain. We took 30 quart trash bags and used them to covered up the newly poured cement, throwing shovels of dirt on top of  them to hold them in place to let the concrete set up.  The following Saturday was spent actually constructing the fence.

Linda from Garden Accent Heaven shows you some of the plants that she grew over the winter inside of her greenhouse.

My backyard and most of my front yard is all garden. I call my backyard “Linda’s Serenity Garden”. This is my happy place,the place where I am free to express myself.

My backyard “Serenity Garden”

My vegatable Garden

I have one area where I grow my own organic vegatables. My greenhouse an also been seen in the background.

My Front Yard

Here is a picture of me that Bob took this spring as we where working together to get my garden ready.